9 tips to improve your negotiation skills

We won’t take much of your time blabbering about the importance of negotiation skills and why they matter to you. You know it already, right? So, without taking any minute, here we are with the 9 tips that will help you improve your negotiation skills.

1 Listen to the other party attentively. This makes the person (s) on the other side feel respected and more inclined to listen to you with a more receptive mindset.

2 Use silence to your advantage. Use it to make the other party thinking and reinforce your points. Many people lose their brownie points just because they chose to speak when they should ideally have listened to the other person.

3 Don’t shy away from negotiation. It’s a skill; so the more you practice it, the better you’ll become at it.

4 Prepare thoroughly. Going to the negotiation table without a thorough preparation is your best plan to fail at negotiation.

5 Read a couple of books on negotiations. Books greatly help. In addition to books, you can also enroll for a corporate skill training program that helps you improve your communication and negotiation skills. Negotiation skill building programs tend to be of short durations and pocket friendly.

Smart companies of modern era spend fortunes on employee corporate training programs because they understand the kind of value such programs bring to their people, and ultimately to their bottom lines. However, they do make sure that they are picking up trainers who have enough understanding of their industry, and are willing to provide customized corporate skill training programs.

6 While negotiating, maintain the eye contact (but, never stare the person). The handshake at the beginning of the meeting and when you rise to leave should be firm. A firm handshake says a lot about who you are. One more thing – you should be particular about your dressing as well. Colors and clothes do matter; they affect your mood as well as confidence. So, wear your favourite shirts and trousers whenever there is an occasion where you might need to negotiate for something.

7 Do not be too rigid about what you believe you should get out of the conversation. Tell yourself that negotiations should not be about one party winning and the other party losing; instead, negotiations should end in a win-win situation for both the parties.

8 Never put anything in writing until the final negotiations are done. Once you put something in writing, you might not be in a position to get it changed.

9 If you think you might forget some important points during the negotiations, write them down in a notepad, and keep this notepad with you when you go to negotiate.

Sridharan Sharma is an irreverent copywriter who likes to write on a wide selection of subjects, including nature and corporate skill training. For more from Sridharan, check back this space often.